A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



down on the ground or lean against a convenient tree without 

 being straightway preyed upon by savage, stinging swarms. 

 Occasionally armies of travelling ants, in a narrow, crawling 

 column, invade camp, and are only discouraged by the use of 

 sticks and hot ashes from the fire. Jiggers and ticks abound 

 in the grass, and a light at night attracts myriads of mosquitoes, 

 moths, and other nocturnal insects to the tent. 



After battling with the insect kingdom until three o'clock 

 that afternoon, I again started out on the hot plain, followed 

 by four porters. At this time of the day all the game was 

 lying down, and consequently on the watch for danger. It was, 

 accordingly, an hour before I had a chance at a hartebeest. 

 Then I succeeded in working my way along a shallow depression 

 to within three hundred yards of where a solitary male was 

 doing sentry-duty for a small herd lying down on the plain 

 beyond. 



At the report of the rifle the hartebeests leaped to their 

 feet and galloped madly away, leaving the sentinel standing 

 motionless, gazing in my direction. I remained perfectly still 

 for about ten minutes, until the wounded antelope lay down, 

 and then began to crawl fonvard through the grass. However, 

 the hartebeest was not so badly wounded as I had imagined, 

 and I had not gone far until it lurched to its feet and galloped 

 toward the horizon. I followed as fast as I was able, with the 

 four eager Swahilis forming a semicircle several hundred yards 

 behind. After a chase of nearly two miles we gradually over- 

 took the wounded antelope, which came to a standstill and 

 faced me. Being out of breath and anxious to make a sure 

 finishing-shot, I approached so close that I had to stop a feeble 

 but determined charge from the wounded animal with a shot 

 in its breast. The first bullet had gone completely through the 

 ribs of this hartebeest, and certainly would have stopped any 

 American game animal of this size within a hundred yards. 

 But all African game, and the hartebeests in particular, seem 



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